In Their Own Words:

Interviews with Children's and YA
Authors & Illustrators

Chima - Crum

"I had this notion about writing a truly American fantasy, set in a small Midwestern college town. Small towns are like laboratories: people interact who would never encounter each other in a big city. You can never escape your history in a small town."

“I was in her tattoo shop looking through the flash book--not that I have any tattoos myself, as I am not that cool, but I find them fascinating--and I got this idea about skin runes that offered protection against demons and how neat that would be.”

"I had been chewing on what I love in books and movies, particularly the idea that all this mundane stuff that happens all the time (like the ridiculous excesses of the prom) can have a supernatural origin or resonance."

“I couldn’t believe it. The song that everyone associates with baseball is about a girl! I decided instead of focusing on a single woman, to make a fictional main character--a composite of the many cool women in the league--and I named her Katie Casey.”

"One of the members of my writers' group at the time tossed me a challenge, wondering if I really wanted to keep bringing the reader's focus back to that dusty stable rather than the baby. I thought about that for a bit, and realized that, for me, an important part of this story is the idea of something great coming from something very humble."

“Anytime someone tells me about a favorite moment in the book, it has been birthed from a revision. And I've had several librarians tell me they love the first line of the book, and that is something that got added late in the process.”